Have you ever dangled a participle?
Take this, for example. “80% of married men cheat in America.” The remaining 20% cheat in Europe, presumably…
We sort of know what this sentence is trying to say, but the participle is misplaced because it seems to relate to the wrong part of the sentence.
There are loads of examples:
She was taken to casualty having been bitten by a snake in her underwear.
The bride was given away by her father wearing her grandmother’s wedding dress.
We always sell goods to people in plastic wrapping.
The reason I bring this up is that I noticed something similar in the charming village of Much Wenlock the other week. On a short Shropshire break for a bit of fresh air, my wife and I were wandering around the village when we noticed two interesting things. Firstly, Much Wenlock is, implausibly, the home of the Modern Olympic Games. The village was the home of one William Penny Brookes, who created the National Olympian Games in 1866. Brookes then began to engage in regular meetings at the Raven Hotel in the village with Baron de Coubertin, the man responsible for founding the modern Olympic Games.
Secondly, we saw this sign in the churchyard.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I have never ridden an exercise dog. I bet even Dr Brookes didn’t ride such a dog when he was coming up with potential events for the inaugural National Olympian Games….
What I think they meant was: “Please don’t exercise dogs or ride bicycles in it”. It proves that even the clergy can dangle a participle here and there….
There are two simple rules that you can follow to avoid this mistake in your writing:
1. The (unexpressed) subject of the participle clause – the person or thing who is doing something – should have the same subject as the (expressed) subject of the main clause.
2. The modifying clause or phase should always come as near as possible to the noun or pronoun it modifies.
As Groucho Marx once said, “I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got into my pyjamas, I’ll never know….”
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Nick Parkhouse is a professional writer. He provides articles, copy, press releases and books and marketing material to a range of local and international clients. He also specialises in sports writing for a number of international sports companies as well finance, property, politics and cinema writing.
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